Additionally, I'm not afraid of starting the business and building from the ground up. 

Mississippi, like California and almost every other state, has several regions and sub regions and each has its strategies and gotchas and opportunities and watch-out-fors...that said, step one is getting boots on the ground in the town/region/holler that you can trust. 

In 1940, I think it would have been a fuse panel not breakers and that the wiring might have still lacked a separate ground wire.

first step is to go to the zoning department yourself and ask. have you looked at other strategies like ADUs or ground up?

Odds are there is much more hidden here than is being shared.A seasoned investor could probably mitigate these risks, but they would run EVERYTHING to ground. 

If you can invest in a location where you have friends or family who can be your eyes and ears on the ground you are more likely to have a positive outcome.

You may have grounds for litigation against the PM.

I moved here from Florida after seeing the projected growth.I would start with something either turnkey or light value-add, so you can start forming your boots on the ground team with less pressure and risk.

The goal is to try and do 2-3 of these projects/year. margins are too low. you need to work on finding land cheaper. look at 500 pieces of land and underwrite them and the exit. we did that for the last 8 months while we have broken ground on a few deals and we focus on where can I exit at the highest which tends to be urban core infill lots. we do this in Columbus Ohio and expanding to where I moved in miami soon. the margin you have is too low though for new construction. how many new builds do you have? 

This is not a fee that any Lender charges on Fix and Flip, DSCR, or Ground up Construction.